Hanne De Jaegher (University of the Basque Country, Marie Curie ITN TESIS) investigates the connections between how we interact, how we understand each other, how we understand the world (together), and who we are. Broadly, she studies the role of social interaction processes in intersubjectivity. For doing this, she has proposed the concept of participatory sense-making. This is also the name of the enactive approach to intersubjectivity that she is developing, together with colleagues in philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. The framework of participatory sense-making connects the interpersonal coordination of movements (including speech) in interaction with the coordination of sense-making activities. For more information visit her website; hannedejaegher.wordpress.com.
Interactive experience
Intersubjectivity is the meaningful engagement between subjects. But what makes it possible for us to make a difference to each other, as happens in love relations, for instance? Why do some of our encounters leave us changed? What makes it possible to affect one another? In this short paper, I bring together some insights on intersubjectivity from phenomenology and enactive cognitive science, in a first step towards better understanding the role of interactive experience in mutual affection. In particular, I join, on the one hand, Michel Henry’s take on self-affection and Merleau-Ponty’s take on pre-reflective embodiment, with, on the other hand, the enactive conceptions of subjectivity, sense-making, and the role of the interaction process. This will help me to arrive at an acount of inter-affection, an important but understudied aspect of intersubjectivity.
The main question of this paper is: How can we mutually affect one another?